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Volleyball: Bemidji State's Groskreutz and McCannell honored by NSIC

A pair of BSU volleyball players were honored in the final week of Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference weekly honors.

Junior outside hitter/libero Brie Groskreutz has been named NSIC Defensive Player of the Week and sophomore setter/defensive specialist Jessi-Beth McCannell has been named NSIC Setter of the Week.

The award for Groskreutz is her third of the season and fourth of her career. Groskreutz is the only Beaver to earn three conference player-of-the-week awards in a season according to available records dating back to 1999.

Also according to available records, it marks the first time two BSU players have been honored in the same week.

Groskreutz averaged 9.17 digs per set in the final two matches of the season, as the Beavers went 1-1. She had 55 total digs, including 38 in a 3-0 sweep of Upper Iowa in the season finale. The 38 digs established a BSU single match record and was the largest dig total by an NSIC player this season. She also added a .926 service percentage and a .897 serve-receive percentage.

Her 38 digs Saturday bumped her season total to 534, which fell just two short of establishing the BSU record (since 1980) for digs in a season. She now has 1,377 career digs, which is just nine shy of the school's career dig record (since 1980), standing third.

McCannell had a career-high 46 set assists (.807 set percentage), averaging 15.33 assists per set in a 3-0 sweep of Upper Iowa to cap-off the 2009 season. She also added 13 digs (4.33 d/s) to earn her first career double-double. She led the team to a .239 hitting percentage, while posting three kills (1.00 k/s) and a .273 attacking percentage of her own. She added a service ace and a perfect 1.000 serve percentage.

The Beavers (11-20, 8-12 NSIC) finished with 11 wins, which is the most by a BSU squad since the 2003 team went 15-17.

The Beavers finished 8-12 in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play, which is the most conference wins since the 2002 campaign when they finished 8-10. BSU took ninth in the final NSIC standings after being placed 11th in the preseason coaches' poll.

BSU went 6-4 at home, which is its first winning home record since 2003 when that squad posted a 7-4 mark in the BSU Gymnasium.